The Prospects and Challenges of E-Governance in Public Service Delivery. The Case of Fitche Town Land Administration

The prospects and challenges of e-governance in public service delivery: the case of Fitche town land administration, North shoa, Oromia Regional State.

Tesfu Eba

Abstract

In recent years, the concept of e-governance has flourished rapidly with the advancement of Information and Communication Technology. The general objective of the study is to assess the Prospects and Challenges of E-Governance in Public Service Delivery in the Case of Fitche Town Land Administration, North Shoa Zone, Oromia Regional State.. The study employed a descriptive type of research design to describe the prospects and challenges of e-governance in Fitche town land administration. This study was combining both a quantitative approach and a qualitative approach. The target population of the study is both the customer and employees of land administration in Fitche town. The researcher randomly selects 70 service receivers who are convenient and 42 or all number of employees in the sector. Generally, 112 participants are applied to this study from both employees and customers of the sector. The data collected from participants of the study were analyzed through descriptive statistical methods such as frequency and percentage. The study revealed that e-governance is a new concept and infant ages in the public service delivery, especially in the Fiche town land administration sector. It reveals that there is a low status of e-governance in the sector. Even if e-governance is on the infant age in the sector it gives many contributions in service delivery in the sector like save time, reduce bribery, increase transparency and accountability in the sector. The research found that infrastructure like internet access was the major significant challenging issue in the success of e-governance system in the sector and Lack of training was also one of the main obstacles to success e-governance in the selected sector. Therefore, the study recommended that the sector should mainly focus on the clarity in terminology is important not just to academics. It is also important for politicians and others engaged in the development ofpublic policy on the utilization of ICT in government and also pieces of training are important for the success of e­governance in the land administration sector.

Key terms

E-governance, land administration, public service delivery, Fitche Town.

1. Introduction

In recent years, the concept of e-governance has been flourished rapidly with the advancement of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). E-Governance would help to facilitate the government to manage resources, implement plans and policies along with efficient service delivery to the citizens. The world within the time has gone digital. Almost every aspect of life is digitalized (Obodo Addis Ababa University, College of Business and Economics, Department ofpublic administration and development management

& Anigbata, 2018). Thus there are modern trends in all aspects of life endeavors such as medicine­telemedicine, commerce-e-commerce, banking-e-banking, learning-e-learning, production-e-production, etc. These phenomena make transactions and interactions around the globe to be more effective and efficient. The world is now a global village and any nation that desires to hitch the comity of countries must adopt the worldwide trends and join the moving train or be left behind (Chandio et al., 2018).

The ultimate goal of e-government and e-governance is to be able to offer an increased portfolio of public services to citizens efficiently and cost-effectively. E-government allows government transparency and accountability. Government transparency is very important because it allows the public to be informed about what the government is working on as well as the policies it is trying to implement (Obodo & Anigbata, 2018).

In both developed and developing countries, there is an increasing need for efficient and effective service delivery through e-governance. Land administration is the part of public service delivery that the government can provide to the citizens. Land administration is that the processes of determining, recording, and disseminating information about the tenure, values, and use of the land during the implementation of land management policies(Commission & Europe, 2005). E-Land administration makes Land Information System (LIS) robust and strong with reliable data storage and backup. The central database adds value by reducing data redundancy and maintaining data integrity. Within the context of e-governance, ICT helps to establish an electronic land administration framework that enhances service delivery with increased customer satisfaction and citizen participation and decision making (Steudler, 2004). Electronic land administration is a major part of E-governance, and land administration data are indicators for wide ranges of related information that are essential for creating value-added data for e-governance. It improves the efficiency, and decrease the cost this means saving the economic value (Uddin & Yasmin, 2020). Like other developing countries, the Ethiopian government has also realized the potential of e-governance to raise the interest and involvement of citizens, NGOs, the private sector, and other stakeholders to address public service and provide public service delivery effectively and efficiently (Ndou, 2004).

In ICT based initiatives, Ethiopia has pioneered electronic networks like Woreda Net to provide ICT services at federal, regional, and woreda (district) levels as well as to connect woredas (districts) and kebeles with regional and federal government offices to provide customer-focused and cost-effective public services (Lessa et al., 2011). However, effective implementation of e-governance demands sound Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure, sustained strategic commitment & effective leader. E-governance initiatives and their implementation have been adversely affected by lack of access to ICT infrastructures, well-trained manpower, & capital, language barriers, low ICT skills, and Addis Ababa University, College of Business and Economics, Department ofpublic administration and development management lack of awareness among the community about the advantages of ICT also as the absence of strategic and sustained leadership (Pathak, et al., 2008).This all are the general problematic issues of e-governance in public service delivery in developing countries including Ethiopia. Since Fitche is one of the administrative towns in the north shoa zones, the land administration offices are inundated with complaints about service delivery. However, no study has been conducted on the prospects and challenges of e-governance in Fitche town. This demands the new study to be undertaken in order to solve the existed challenges and to provide the future opportunities. This is why the researcher is motivated to assess the prospects and challenges of e-governance in public service delivery of land administration by considering the Fitche town.

2. Statement of the problems

Now a day’s, urban land administration is one of the sensitive government public sectors with a huge number of customers. Land is fundamental to development, growth and housing delivery in any society. It is a crucial element in property development process and its acquisition is vital to achieving efficient and sustainable housing delivery in urban environment (Omirin, 2002). The empirical works of Tessema Adigeh & Dagnew(2020)emphasizes that access to land and property rights is a major key issue in economic growth and development. Land problems in urban areas of developing countries like Ethiopia arise mainly because of the rapid increase in population with the scarce or inadequate nature of urban land. With the rapidly expanding urban population, many towns and cities of the developing world are faced with the difficulty of accommodating the urban poor. Because of this event, how to use the scarce resource effectively and efficiently are an issue of concern and a debatable issue (Habtamu, 2012).

Traditionally service delivery in land administration is not efficient with service-related high costs. There is the provision of service by manual way. This makes less quality, costly, time-consuming, and inefficient service delivery with lots of delays and complicated and frequent visits to get one task done. The service recipients came to the office repeatedly and waste their time to resolve unfinished cases, the majority of services were delivered behind time (Birtukan, 2019). To achieve the above problems e­Governance is introduced innovations in the field of Land administration. This study attempt to see the prospects and challenges of e-governance in fiche town land administration. From the pre-research observation the customers of Fitche the land administration has been hosting repeated complaints regarding the service deliver. It is routine that most service recipients come to the office repeatedly and waste their time to resolve unfinished cases, the majority of services are delivered behind time. The potential of an e-governance system has not been exploited yet to improve the efficiency of the service delivery in Fitche town land administration. By considering this the researcher was trying to see the prospects and challenges of e-governance in service delivery. More specifically, this study attempts to answer the following research questions.

1. What does the implementation of e-governance look like in the land administration of the Fitche town?
2. What are the prospects of e-governance in service delivery in Fitche town land administration in particular?
3. What are the challenges of e-governance in public service delivery in Fitche land administration?
4. What can be done to overcome the challenges of E-governance in Fitche town land administration?

3. General objectives

The general objective of the study is to assess the Prospects and Challenges of E-Governance in Public Service Delivery in the Case of Fitche Town Land Administration, North Shoa Zone, Oromia Regional State. To attain the main objective, the research has identified some specific objectives:

a. To assess the practice of e-governance implementation in Fitche town land administration,
b. To examine the prospects of e-governance in service delivery on land administration in Fitche town,
c. To assess the challenges of e-governance in public service delivery on Fitche town land administration,
d. To suggest the possible measures on the challenges of E-governance on public service delivery in land administration in Fitche town.

4. Reflection from relevant literature

Governments everywhere the world is in pursuit of information and Communication Technologies (ICT)- based solutions for facilitating good governance. The phenomenon is popularly known as e-governance or e-government as per varying country contexts. E-governance is the logical next step in the use of ICT in systems of governance in order to ensure wider participation and deeper involvement of citizens(Ali et al., 2017).

E-governance is defined as the use of emerging information and communication technologies to facilitate the processes of government and public administration (Drucker, 2001) while e-government is defined as the use of information technology to support government operations, engage citizens, and provide government service(Gurung et al., 2015)

E-service initiatives focus mainly on improving the relationship between the government and its citizens by increasing the information flow and improving the service levels of government towards its citizens. E-society initiatives extend the previous e-services domain by that specialize in an institutional Addis Ababa University, College of Business and Economics, Department ofpublic administration and development management stakeholders, such as private sector service providers, other public agencies, and not-for-profit and community organizations. The three domains of e-governance are seldom separate in their implementations; rather, they involve overlapping activities as part of an equivalent initiative. To put it more strongly: good e-governance programs must take into under consideration all three domains (Heeks, 2001).

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Fig.1. Overlapping domains of e-government (adapted from Heeks, 2001).

4.1. Theoretical aspect of e-governance

E-governance reflects a process of re-invention and re-engineering in governance and 'is aimed towards adapting administration to the further increasing flow of information: accelerating the process of decision making by optimizing resources, and making the mechanism for deciding self-regulating' (Baev 2003).” There are different theories of e-governance in public service delivery. Those are the following:

Theory of rationalization: Rationalization theorists argue that E-governance has tremendous potentiality in improving governing process and therefore there is rationality in decision making (Taps Scott 1997). This theory is based on classical Cybernetic theory and argues that information reduces uncertainty and increases control.

Rationalization at cost theory: The second theory postulates that there is a cost or price for the rationality posture. It is on account of over bureaucratization decisions that are being made with the help of algorithms are shifted away from politicians to permanent officials because they ceased to become part of the policymaking process. The most aggressive kind of argument put forward by these theorists is that E-governance techniques are pervasive; so that the citizens may become docile subjects of authority.

Erosion of rationality or noise theory: The third perspective on E-governance is that E-governance would do away with rationality. They argue that policymaking is a time-consuming process and the problem of information overload on account of IT penetration would distract the attention of policymakers from qualitative and unstructured factors to quantitatively measured and structured factors and information (Perry, 2001). The theorists believe that excessive technological domination would lead to weak decision-making based on judgment. Erosion of rationality supporting people denies cybernetic school that information is control and prefers to argue that information is noise.

Socio-political domination over technology or social shaping theory: They believe that there will be no implication of technology on the political rationality of decision-making. The process of governance is shaped by the socio-political forces and technologies are just means for conflict conservative social and political shaping or change of styles of Governance (Perry, 2001). The main debate they put across is that technologies could provide an opportunity for policymakers to demonstrate to the public the authority of their decision-making capacity, however, the real basis on which decisions are made is out of political reasons.

4.2. The opportunities and challenges of e-governance

The objective of E-governance is not just to computerize government offices it is to gradually transform the way the government operates. But the process will take time and a significant amount of re­engineering of processes. Hence, E-government is not just another way of doing existing activities; it is a transformation on a scale that will fundamentally alter the way public services are delivered (Al-Mushayt et al., 2012). The most important anticipated benefits of E-governance in developed, as well as developing countries, are improved efficiency (citizens get connected to the government more easily using electronic means of communication. This results in better efficiency in public service delivery through faster dissemination of government information to a larger audience), increase in transparency and accountability of government functions, convenient and faster access to government services, improved democracy (Equal opportunity is given to all or any to access information regardless of the person's physical location or disability and therefore the elimination of the bureaucracy experienced in government offices), and lower costs of administrative services (interdepartmental exchange of information and merger of related services is enhanced among government agencies with an accompanying reduction of transaction costs, time, space and manpower) (Adeyemo, 2010).)

Despite it's evident that E-governance and ICTs are powerful drivers for quality public service delivery there remain many challenges that hamper the exploration and exploitation of its opportunities. The multidimensionality and complexity of E-governance initiatives imply the existence of a good sort of challenges and barriers to its implementation of various platforms and packages. Practically, these barriers can have a big effect on the event of state organizations' capabilities to supply online services and transactions.

4.3. Stakeholder in e-governance

The adoption of E-governance in any country shall involve the active participation and contribution of several key players and stakeholders in the entire process. Some of the importance of stakeholders Addis Ababa University, College of Business and Economics, Department ofpublic administration and development management (UNESCO, 2005; UN, 2008; Otike and Ntulo 2013) has including: Political Leaders: No E-government initiative no matter how well-strategized can bear fruit unless there is a will to do so by the political leadership in the country. This stands true for almost all nations and the top leadership in the country must be sensitized enough towards the need for electronic governance.

Government Ministries/Departments/Agency: The government departments in the least levels during a country got to ensure an ideal backend integration of systems and processes to make sure a smooth and seamless transformation of the gov’t to a digital state. The E-awareness amongst the gov’t employees and their willingness to embrace change shall play a key role within the whole process. Public sector ministries/agencies integration has a pivotal role in providing their services in an easily coordinated way and potentially reducing the tediousness and tiredness of service users here to there in accessing services from different agencies and organization.

Legislative body: Formulation and enactment of well-crafted IT laws and policies may be a prerequisite for the success of an e-government venture and therefore the role of law-making bodies assumes paramount importance during this regard.

Citizens: Being the key beneficiaries of the entire process, the citizens play a crucial role as they are the ones to expect fast and convenient delivery of online information and services from the government and would also contribute effectively to the process of policymaking by voicing their opinion and views electronically.

Private sector: A healthy collaboration and partnership between the government and the industry/ private sector entities shall lead to an easy fulfillment of E-government goals as both the parties can draw benefit out of the ventures. The private sector can be an investor for e-government initiatives and can also add value to the e-government initiatives through the deployment of advanced technology and global expertise. Apart from the commercial aspect, they would in turn benefit from the increased efficiency, transparency, and accountability of the government.

International organization and NGOs: These can play a crucial role by being facilitators and motivators for the projects. Through an efficient promotion of the e-government initiatives, these agencies can raise awareness amongst the common citizens and may also contribute by completing research within the area and exchanging best practices with countries that have already proved successful in some areas of E­governance platforms.

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Fig.2. stakeholder in e-governance

4.4. E-governance and land administration

The application of e-governance in land management is an important issue. Land administration as a term has been defined in many publications and several vocabularies and different from country to country. According to Williamson and Steudler (2002), Land Administration is defined as „the processes of determining, recording and disseminating information about the tenure, value, and use of land when implementing land management policies. To tackle the difficulty of land-related troubles, the government has introduced e-government practice in land administration. According to (UNECE, 2005), “Land administration is defined as the process of determining, recording and disseminating information about the tenure, value, and use of land when implementing land management policies”(Maasikamae, 2005).

FAO defines land administration as to how the rules of land tenure are applied and made operational (UNCE, 2015):Land rights: the allocation of rights in land; the delimitation of boundaries of parcels for which the rights are allocated; the transfer from one party to another through sale, lease, loan, gift, or inheritance; and so the adjudication of doubts and disputes regarding rights and parcel boundaries(Feeyes, 1987), Land-use regulation: land-use planning and enforcement and the adjudication of land-use conflicts and Land valuation and taxation: the gathering of revenues through forms of land valuation and taxation, and the adjudication of land valuation and taxation disputes.

4.5. E-government in Ethiopia

It’s not too distant past Ethiopia has seen repeated political upheavals. But the incumbent government has nevertheless declared good governance to be a priority. At present, Ethiopia spends one tenth of its GDP per annum on IT. Efficient implementation of e-Governance can substantially reduce the cost of Ethiopian government by increasing government official’s productivity, by dramatically cutting the time for the processing of information and regulatory implementation, and through the wide implementation of e-procurement. Internet usage in Ethiopia, according to Internet World Statistics is somewhat equivalent to that of Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo but far less than that of Kenya (1.2%) and South Africa (7.3%) (Pathak et al., 2008). However, the government is keen on privatizing the national operator—Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation (ETC)—and introducing competition in mobile and Internet services. The mobile sector has been growing by 100% or more per annum in recent years crossing the capacity limits. Broadband initiatives taken in 2005 are intended to bring the country closer to the information society with higher budgets allocated for infrastructure improvements in 2006. With the new ICT program the government of Ethiopia is endeavoring to improve deteriorating public services. Its dream relies on the spread and usage of Internet technology. However, Ethiopia is yet to realize the potential benefits of employing ICT to curb corruption in public sector. The wealth accumulated through corrupt means seeks safer destinations and moves out of the country. Government agencies do not seem to be much motivated to distribute information online, and automate processes that are subject to corrosive and corrupt influences. Most government websites developed to point out the government’s commitment to e-Governance become dysfunctional or obsolete. Bureaucracy remains opaque. Therefore, it becomes essential to spot specific targets in Ethiopia where ICT can be successfully applied as a tool in curbing corruption and improving the quality of public services for the mass of citizens. Further initiatives are underway. These include a project to connect all Federal Courts with a centralized database through a Wide Area Network (WAN). The availability of Internet broadband facilities in major cities, even with varying degree of penetration, and its non-availability in rural areas itself creates problems. It shifts power but still leaves it in the hands of a few. Therefore the use of ICT for removal or reduction of corruption in Ethiopia appears to be limited, not because of the failure of technology but because of the limits to its reach among citizens generally. It may that the best that can be hoped for is a phased approach that gradually extends reach and impact first in the cities and then in the rural areas.

According to reports of (Adam, 2010) in Ethiopia the E-government strategy has four objectives, these are:

- Bring the government closer to the people (building a good relationship between government citizens): one of the objective of e-government approach is to boost the consciousness levels of the people regarding the services make available by the government and also their rights as citizens as well as build it easy for the citizens to pressure and participate in development of government policies. This participation is anticipated to build a sense of possession and culture of huge accomplishment leading to closer ties between the people and the government.
- Effective governance: implementing e-government approach will guide to backend automation to a familiar collections of policies and standards showing to enhanced integration and information sharing among them and in turn making the public-sectors more effective and efficient in delivering their services and duties. And again, potential building to offer training to public service employees on skills that will allow them to serve the customers in more effective way is an important part of the general e-government strategy.
- Service delivery of improvement: one aspires of e-government approach is the electronic enablement of services to be delivered via alternate delivery channels such as: internet, mobile, call center and the citizen facilitation centers. Using these alternate channels will allow the citizens with another of how, when and where they cooperate with the government to facilitate customer satisfaction levels with the government services. At the same time, it is also showing that electronically enabled services would be not only faster and easier to access therefore; it leads to a visible improvement in quality of service delivery.
- Growth of socio-Economic: private-sector involvement and deployment of its capital, entrepreneurship and competence will promote the realization of the E-government projects. On the same way, the private-sector would also beneficial from e-government program such as: government services will be delivered faster at the lower cost to the citizens therefore, resulting in lower costs of doing business. This promotes economic growth and sustainability of the e­government initiatives.

4.6. Conceptual framework

Land administration the most confronted issue in both developed and developing countries including Ethiopia. E-governance is one of the effective approaches for bringing effective and efficient public service, especially in land administration. E-Governance has various prospects and challenges in public service delivery. Based on this the conceptual framework is developed as follows.

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Fig.3 conceptual framework

5. Research methodology

Depending on the topic objectives and availability of data for this study a descriptive type of research design is employed to assess E-governance in public service delivery with special emphasis on Fitche town land administration, North Shoa Zone, Oromia Regional State. This study was combining both a quantitative approach and a qualitative approach. The quantitative approach is employed by undertaking numerical analysis and interpretation of results whereas the qualitative approach is a deeper description of the problem under investigation and presents a detailed view of the study. The target population of this study was both employees and customers of the Fitche town Land administration sector. The reason why this population was targeted was the researcher’s high expectation of having good information concerning the prospects and challenges of e-governance in service delivery in the land administration sector of the town. Consequently, the sampling technique in this study was census method and convenience sampling. The rationale of using the census method is for the employees because they are small in number. On the other hand, the convenience sampling technique was for the customers of the service. This is due to the Addis Ababa University, College of Business and Economics, Department ofpublic administration and development management nature of the respondent's or service user's unavailability in a fixed time. Thus, those service receivers who are found executing their activities on different days were filling the questionnaires. The researcher randomly selects 70 service receivers or customers of Fiche town land administration and 42 or all number employees in the sector. Generally, 112 participants are applied to this study from both employees and customers of the sector. In this study, the popular approaches include various data collection instruments such as interviews, and questionnaires as well were applied. Both primary and secondary sources were used in this study. The primary sources of this study included information collected from the targeted respondents by conducting a semi-structured questionnaire and in-depth interviews and focus group decisions as well involved. Besides, secondary data were collected from relevant books both published and unpublished journals, different articles, reports, and appropriate official documents to enrich the study with secondary data as well as to ensure the sequence of the use of methods. In order to analyze the statistical data that was obtained through questioner, the researcher was employed descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage. On the other hand, qualitative data obtained through interviews was first summarized and then analyzed using narration and interpretation.

6. Results

This part is deal with data analysis, presentation, and interpretation of data gathered from respondents concerning the prospects and challenges of E-governance in public service delivery in Fitche town land administration. Accordingly, analysis, presentation, and interpretation were made to achieve the objective of the study using different methods of analysis. Descriptive methods of data analysis such as frequency, percentage, were mainly used to analyze data obtained from respondents through questionnaires, interviews, and focus group decisions. In addition, in order to complement the primary data, different secondary sources have been used.

Table 1. Respondents view on the concepts of e-governance

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Source: Own survey 2021

As table1 show that 45(40.2%) of the participants had knowledge of the concepts of e-governance and the facilities offered by e-governance and 67(59.8%) of the respondents are do not know what e-governance is in service delivery. Accordingly, the majority of the respondents do not know e-governance in service delivery. This indicates that e-governance is a new concept and infant ages in the service delivery, especially in the local government.

Table 2. Employees view on the level information communication technology

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Source: Own survey (2021)

According to item one in the 2 table show that 32(73.8%) of the employees replied there is ICT in the sector, 11(26.2%) of the respondents there is no ICT in the sector and none of them were replied I don’t know. This indicates that the there is a provision information communication technology in the sector. The survey result on the second item of the above table shows that 10(23.8%) of the respondents were used database management systems, 5(11.9%) were using information software in the sector and 20(47.6%) transferring data using network connection with the other sectors to perform their activities. Based on the survey result 7(16.6%) of employees (respondents) were use operating software such as GIS. This implies that there is a low practice in developing software in the sector.

Table 3. Respondents on the view of the current status of e-governance in the sector

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Source: Own survey (2021)

The first item in the 3 table asked the participants to express their views on the current status of e - governance in the sector. Hence the majority of the respondents 57(50.9%) replied low, and 40(35.7%) replied high and 15(13.4%) of the respondent have replied there no e-governance in the sector. The result indicates that there is a low status of e-governance in fitche town land administration. From this one can conclude that this there is low e-service delivery in the sector. The second item of the above table asked the participants to express their opinion on the current exchanging information system in the sector. Based on the survey result the majority 63(56.25%) of the respondents showed that information exchange with internal and external entities was done manually and less electronic system with the other sectors. And 40(35.7%) of the respondents replied there is manual to exchange information and 9(8.03%) of the respondents replied there is electronic information in the sectors. From this it’s possible to conclude that there is low in using electronic systems to exchange information in the sector. That is, they are still known for doing a lot of paperwork which if e-governance is embraced fully would have reduced. In a better case, you will see the combination of both the traditional way of doing things alongside the digital approach.

Table 4. Respondents view on the impact of e-governance in enhancing service delivery

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Source: Own survey: 2021

On the above table item 1 from the entire participated respondents, 70 (62.5%) of them said e-governance has a positive impact on enhancing service delivery and 42 (37.5%) of them replayed no. So this revealed that among other things that e-governance has a strong positive effect on service delivery by enhancing the service delivery. This is because the utilization of ICT in work-related activities reduces the waste of your time, delays, and mistakes on a part of workers within the discharge of their duties. In the second item of the table 4 respondents were asked to reflect their view on the introduction of e-governance in the sectors, is there any improvement in the land administration system? Based on their view 78(69.6%) of them given their view there is an improvement of service delivery after the introduction of e-governance in the sector .and 27(24.1%) and 7(6.3%) were replied no and I don't know. So this shows that the provision of public service through e-governance improves service delivery and more customer satisfaction.

Table 5. Employees view on the strategic plan to develop e-governance

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Source: Own survey; 2021

Based on what the above table displays for the question did the Fitche town land administration prepare a strategic plan to develop E-governance? The majority 29(69.05%) of the respondents said no and the rest 13(30.95%) said yes. Based on the majority of the result obtained from the responses, it is possible to conclude that there is no strategic plan in the sector to develop e-governance in service delivery. Through interviews with the top managers of the sectors of land administration in the town revealed that strategic planning efforts are useful to do because they help the organization develop a vision of how to deploy e­Governance services and a road map to follow to deliver the services but it's not a widespread practice within each sector or department. One of the issues that managers agreed on was that there is usually confusion about identifying which employees should participate in the planning process. But the reality is that E-Governance has been developed using both a top-down and bottom-up approach often simultaneously in many government organizations (Garson 2006).

Table 5. Employee views on the level of training in ICT and infrastructure in the sector

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Sources: own survey 2021

As show in table 5, 73.8% of the respondent’s replied that there were lacks of training on information communication to upgrade their knowledge and enhance the performance. Without supporting the expertise of individual end-users with training, no system can achieve its full potential. An idea raised by interviews and FDGs participants; training is an essential tool that makes employees competitive to perform their activities in an orderly manner. It also introduces employees with the new way of techniques and technologies which were important to pursue the activity. Lack of training makes the successful e-governance late for implementation at the right time and in the right sector. For the success of e-governance, training should be able to include all functionaries and it should be able to continue. Training on information communication has a direct relationship with e-governance readiness in land administration. But the sector has given little attention to training of the employees. The 2nd question, as Addis Ababa University, College of Business and Economics, Department ofpublic administration and development management indicated in the above table, stating about the level of infrastructure in the sector concerned respondents answer has become42.86 % yes and 57.14% no. This indicates that there is no sufficient infrastructure. As it has been explained in the definition of e-governance above, it is the application of ICTs in the operations of government business. The Fitche town land administration is still lacking in basic ICT infrastructure. What you see in their daily activities is the traditional way of doing things. There is still no access to internet network in the sector offices, no regular power supply and so on. An idea raised by interviews and FDGs participants inadequate access to electricity remains one of the biggest stumbling blocks to create a comprehensive ICT infrastructure.

Table 6. The view of respondents on the challenges of e-governance

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Source: own survey 2021

Based on the above table 98(87.5%) of the respondents show that there were challenges in implementing e-governance in the land administration sector and 4(3.6%) of the respondents were replied there are no e­governance problems. However, 10(8.92%) of the respondents replied I don't know. So this indicates that there is the problem of e-governance in fiche town land administration. The general problematic issues that hamper the implementation of e-governance mentioned by the respondents on the above-mentioned points were;

Lack of Infrastructure: From the total of 112 respondents, 29(25.89%) respondents replayed infrastructure is one of the challenges of e-governance in service delivery. However, the Fiche town land administration Addis Ababa University, College of Business and Economics, Department ofpublic administration and development management did not have such infrastructure necessary to organize e-governance throughout its sector. The absence of such infrastructure in the sector results in the weak implementation of the e-governance system in the institution. The institution needs to acquire such infrastructures for the successful implementation of the e-governance system.

Culture and attitudes: From the total of 112 respondents’ 26(23.6%) respondent’s replayed culture and attitudes as one of the challenges of e-governance in public service delivery. Overcoming cultural inertia is one among the most main challenges to e-government implementation in developing countries (Nadou, 2004).

Financial problem: From 112 respondents 17(15%) of the participants replied lack financial is also the problem of e-governance in service delivery. Finance was seen as the core pillar of success in i e­governance. The issue is not just the initial funding of equipment and software, but the ongoing maintenance of the systems and training of personnel that concerns the interviewees. Respondent believed that non-stop availability of funds may be a major challenge in implementing e-governance to succeed in the sector.

Lack of attention from the higher officials: Without support from the top management and innovation is less likely to be adopted. Thus, e-governance needs support from the highest level of government for successful. Top management support refers to the commitment from top management to provide a positive environment that encourages participation in e-governance applications. Therefore, it plays a significant role in the adoption and implementation of e-government (Ndou, 2004). According to 14(12.5%) of the respondents replayed there is the problem of support from the top government

Lack of Well-Trained Personnel: According to (Nadou, 2004) lack of skill includes a lack of computer literacy among the citizens, and government sectors themselves. According to 13(11.6%) of the respondents replayed were lack of well-trained personnel in the sector was a problematic issue in e­governance in the sector.

Lack of Privacy or Security Issues: Privacy and security are critical obstacles in the implementation of e­government. Privacy refers to the guarantee of an appropriate level of protection regarding information attributed to a private (Basu, 2004). According to 7(6.25%) of the respondents, privacy/security was another of the challenges of e-governance in service delivery.

Lack Up-date and Clear Data: From the survey result 6(5.4%) of the respondents replied that they did not have clear, accurate, and up-date land information for their operation. Land information is crucial for the social and economic development of a city. The government by its nature is an information-demanding organization. Lack of clear data might lead to inappropriate decision making and policy formation that directly affect in general. This was also hindering the success e-governance in the sector.

Addis Ababa University, College of Business and Economics, Department ofpublic administration and development management

Finally, an idea raised by interviews and FDGs participants as E-governance is not simply a matter of giving government officials computers or automating old practices. Neither the utilization of computers nor the automation of complex procedures can bring about greater effectiveness in government or promote civic participation. Focusing solely on technological solutions will not change the mentality of bureaucrats who view the citizen as neither a customer of government nor a participant in decision­making. Understood correctly, e-governance utilizes technology to accomplish reform by fostering transparency, eliminating distance and other divides, and empowering people to participate in the political processes that affect their lives. The other the issue of technology is dynamic by its nature. It forces every functionary to adopt the recently invented technology else the current systems by themselves pull back and make the department's operation very weak and unable to create standard service delivery to the expected customers. The other is the problem of the ability to use the native language in the system of e­governance. Lack of access to use native langue in ICT was a huge challenge for the successful implementation of e-governance in the institution. This was also reflected in the town land administration sector. The use of information would have to be made accessible in the language most comfortable and unproblematic to use for all functionaries and users

Table 7. Respondents view on the possible remedies for the challenges of e-governance

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Source: own survey 2021

Solutions put forward by the Fiche town land administration by employees and service users as well as different expert of the users of land service to overcome the challenges that hamper e-governance in service delivery included; Expansion of infrastructure: The solution shown by the participants was the development of infrastructure. Based on the survey result 41(36.6%) of the respondents were suggested that the development of infrastructure was a basic component for the implementation of e-governance in an institution. Countries with thriving economies are by and large associated with increased access to the infrastructure of ICTs compared to those whose economies are doing badly (Nua, 2002). Lack of infrastructure is the chronic barrier to adopting E-governance platform services from the demand side is the problem of social exclusion caused by the problem of unequal access to users.

Commitment to government: another of the solutions forwarded by the employees and different experts for the successful implementation of e-governance was government commitment. This was highly essential for the e-governance and without such commitment; it was difficult for the success of e­governance. Based on the survey result 22(19.64%) of the respondents were shows that government commitment was essential for the success of e-governance in the selected sector. When government commitment was considered many things should be imagined to analyze the situation. It is difficult to start these types of systems from the beginning in the sector rather it requires at least some preconditions to fulfill for the success of e-governance. Some of the pre-conditions include policy formulation at the national or sectoral level, provision of finance for the system, giving continuous attention for infrastructures, development of human resources, monitoring and evaluation of policy implementation, etc. should be able to undertake by the government. The government should able to show initiatives on these issues in the institution for the successful implementation of the system.

Supporting employees in training: Supporting employees in training: The results in the table above show 21(18.7%) of the participant replied that supporting employees in training is the possible remedy for the challenges of e-governance in service delivery. Most employees will have some weaknesses in their workplace skills. A training program may allow the strengthening of those skills that each employee needs to improve. Providing the required training creates an overall knowledgeable staff with employees who can take over for each other as required, work on teams or work independently without constant help and supervision from others.

Creating Culture and awareness of e-governance: Create awareness about e-governance among participants and at the top-level managers was very important to implement the system fully in an organization. Based on the participant results 18(19.64%) of the respondents were shows that creating culture and awareness was vital for better adoption of e-governance in an institution. However, such activities were not done well in the selected sector for the success e-governance. Creating awareness facilitates the success of e-governance in service delivery since awareness introduces the potential benefit of e-governance in the sectors among the participant, managers, and lower-level employees.

Calls for the involvement of stakeholders in developing e-governance: One of the solutions that were suggested by participants for the success of e-governance in the sector was calls for the involvements of stakeholders in the process of e-governance system. Stakeholders' involvements were essential for the successful implementation of e -governance in the land administration sector. Based on the survey result 10(8.9%) of the respondents were show that calls for the involvement of stakeholders were important for Addis Ababa University, College of Business and Economics, Department ofpublic administration and development management the successful implementation of e-governance in the land administration sector. The land administration sector should be able to involve these entities/stakeholders (government, non-governmental organizations, and private sectors) for the success of e-governance in public service delivery which was infant stages the sectors.

7. Conclusion

Based on the data analysis and interpretations of the study have finally come up with the following conclusion. The study was conducted to assess the prospects and challenges of e-governance in service delivery a case of Fitche town land administration of north shoa zone Oromia regional state. The study was mainly focused on the prospects and challenges of e-governance in public service deliver. To achieve this objective, the researcher used both secondary and primary data through questionnaires, interviews, and focus group decisions. The study methodology was descriptive research method with both qualitative and quantitative descriptions. The followings are brief discussion of the findings of this study with regard to the main research question. Respondents have low knowledge of the concept of e-governance in service delivery; the researcher can be concluded e-governance is a new concept and infant ages in the service delivery, especially in the selected sector. The majority of the information was exchanging manually or paper-based system. In sector people has a long standing history with paper-based system. It’s also seen as a difficult problem to turn them from paper based system to e-based system. In that case government can do some campaign, add, to make aware about the new e-governance system so that they can feel less resistance to turn there. Even if e-governance is the infant age in the sectors it gives many contributions to both the service users and service delivers of the sectors like safe time, reduce bribery, increase transparency and accountability in the sector. Infrastructure like access to the internet was the major significant challenging issue in implementing the successful e-governance system in the sector. The levels of infrastructure like hardware, software, internet connection (broadband), network connection, etc. was poor in sector. These had the potentials to hamper the success of the e-governance system in the sector. Most of the employees used transferring the data using the connection in the sector. But those who were using other types of the system were very small and this became the obstacle for the successful adoption of e-governance. Users who were got the benefits due to using were not much attractive and promising and there was the presence of information technologies in the sector that were not related to the department's operation. Lack of training was also one of the main obstacles to success e-governance in the land administration sector. Training did not get attention from the sector for better adoption of the system. Local/native language in information technology was one of the tools in implementing a successful e­governance system in the sector because native language can encompass the majority of the users (functionaries, managers, or end-users). However, the use of local language was in the infant stage and Addis Ababa University, College of Business and Economics, Department ofpublic administration and development management the process was not well developed. This also became one of the challenges of e-governance system in the sector.There were many solutions foreword to overcome challenges of e-governance in the selected sector. The land administration sector needed solutions like high government commitment, training facilities based on the sector needs, involvement of stakeholders, creating awareness and expansion of infrastructures for the successful adoption of e-governance in the sector. Stakeholder’s involvement was critical in implementing the e-governance system.

8. Recommendations

E-governance is a new concept and infant ages in the public service delivery, especially in the local government. So Clarity in terminology is important not just to academics. It is also important for politicians and others engaged within the development of public policy on the utilization of ICT in government. If the term e-governance is to be useful, it is important to both employees and customers of the sector even for every organization. In that case government should give more attention add some criteria about e-governance study from school level. For the people who have no opportunity to study in the school, government can arrange some training program so that they can learn and became beneficial. Proper strategic planning is an important aspect for a success e-governance system. In the planning phase every user’s aspect should be followed. Without a proper plan, e-governance systems can’t reach its target goal. The study have seen that because of inappropriate planning in the sector e-governance are not receiving there users acceptance. It is important to take an involvement-oriented approach to developing an e-governance strategy. This creates efficiency to finish a routine decisions and tasks, it encumbers the effectiveness of organizations to problem-solve, share knowledge, and otherwise be innovative. It is imperative to involve employees in all aspects of e-governance systems development Training in ICT and the provision of infrastructure is the most important for the success of e-governance. A well-trained and motivated workforce is critical to e-governance success. Without proper ICT infrastructure it’s impossible for the e-governance. First of all it is necessary to have a proper ICT infrastructure to implement e-governance. From the provision infrastructure like electricity and internet are low in the selected sector. However electricity and internet is the main component that will bring the vision of e-governance to the users. Government should give their attention to reach the electricity in a satisfactory level so that people can use the e-governance facility without hamper.

Enhance Stakeholders Co-ordinations and Effort Synergy: Without stakeholder involvement, e­governance will not come into expected e-governance. The question of where government controls end and the private sector takes over in e-governance an effort is a difficult one to answer. The best way to proceed in joint or cooperative projects must be considered carefully, with public and personal interests working together as partners, and not necessarily for political or economic gain. New partnerships and Addis Ababa University, College of Business and Economics, Department ofpublic administration and development management alliances can have unforeseen consequences, so it’s important to be ready to review new relationships frequently to make sure that both parties are pleased with the arrangement.

- Review and reassess laws and policies that impede public/private cooperation.
- Ensure that agreements with contractors and partners are equitable and might be reviewed and revised over time.
- Seek assistance and involvement from organizations that already have experience in providing services and information using the same.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First and foremost, I would like to thank God and his mother St. Mary, who makes everything possible. I would like to gratefully and sincerely thank my advisor Jemal Abagissa (Ph.D.) who gave me support and guidance throughout this thesis work. I also admire him for his polite and brotherly approach while advising me. I would also like to thanks all my friends for their moral supports and encouragement for the success of this paper specially Abdisa Abera for his initiation, encouragement, and moral support in the completion of this thesis.

I express my gratitude to my beloved family particularly appreciation to my father Eba Badade, my mother Mulu Fayisa, and all my brothers for their initiation, courage, support, and help in completing this research.

Finally, it is with great pleasure that I acknowledge all respondents who participated in providing the necessary data for this study God bless you all

9. References

Adam, L. (2010). Ethiopia ICT Sector Performance Review 2009 / 2010.

Adeyeye. M., & Aladesanmi, T. (2010). Aligning ICT for service delivery in Nigerian local government retrieved from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/login.jsp.2003

Ali, I., Garg, R. K., Vats, P., & Vyas, S. (2017). E-governance: a study of issues & challenges in Indian context. ... Journal of Engineering and ..., 3, 579-582.

Al-Mushayt, O. S., Perwej, Y. & Haq, K. (2012). Electronic-government in Saudi Arabia: A positive revolution in the peninsula. 1(1), 87-98. http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.3986 E­GOVERNANCE. (n.d.).

Basu Subhajit (2004) E-Government and Developing Countries: An Overview: International Review of Law Computers and Technology, Volume 18, No. I pp.110

Birtukan Abebe, (2019). E-government based land administration framework; trends, challenges and prospects.

Chandio, A. R., Haider, Z., Ahmed, S., Ali, M., & Ameen, I. (2018). E-Government in Pakistan: Framework of Opportunities and Challenges. Gsr, 6(12), 490-501.

Commission, E., & Europe, F. O. R. (2005). Economic Commission for Europe Geneva Land Administration in the UNECE Region Development trends and main principles United Nations New York and Geneva, 2005. http://www.unece.org

Feeyes, T. (1987). Land tenure and rural development. In Development Southern Africa (Vol. 4, Issue 4). https://doi.org/10.1080/03768358708439359

Gurung, S., Dangol, S., & Bhatta, G. P. (2015). E-Governance for an Effective and Efficient Service: Case study on e- Land Administration Services in South East Asia E­Governance for an Effective and Efficient Service: Case study on e- Land Administration Services in South East Asia.

Lessa, L., Negash, S., & Amoroso, D. L. (2011). Acceptance of Woreda Net e-Government services in Ethiopia: Applying the UTAUT Model. 17th Americas Conference on Information Systems 2011, AMCIS 2011, 2, 972-982.

Maasikamäe, S. (2005). The land administration system as a framework for the land consolidation in Estonia.

Ndou, V. (2004). E-Government for Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges. The Electrical Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, 107.

Obodo, N. A., & Anigbata, D. O. (2018). Challenges of Implementing Electronic Governance in Public Sector Organizations in Nigeria. International Journal of Applied Economics, Finance and Accounting, 2(1), 30-35. https://doi.org/10.33094/8.2017.2018.21.30.35

Omirin, M. M. (2002, July 16-17). Issues in land accessibility in Nigeria. In Proceeding of a national workshop on land management and property tax reform in Nigeria.

Pani .N. & Mishra. S.S. (2007). E-governance in developed nations. The Icfai University press of Hyderabad, India.

Pathak, R. D., Singh, G., Belwal, R., Naz, R., & Smith, R. (2008). E-Governance, corruption and public service delivery: A comparative study of Fiji and Ethiopia. 3(1), 65-79.

R. Heeks, “Understanding e-governance for development, i-government working paper series,” Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester, No.11, 2001, http://www.man.ac-uk/idpm/idpm dp.htm#ig.

Salam, M.A. (2012). Mobile e-service car: a service delivery innovation in Bangladesh. Unpublished Postgraduate Report. BRAC University: Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Steudler, D., Rajabifard, A. and William, I.P. (2004 Evaluation of land administration system. Journal for land use policy

Tapscott, D. and Caston, A. (1993). Paradigm Shift: The New Promise of Information Technology

Tessema Adigeh, D., & Dagnew, B. (2020). Urban land management practices and challenges: the case of Injibara town, Northwest Ethiopia. International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, 11 (8), 1746-1757. http://www.ijser.org

Uddin, M. N., & Yasmin, S. (2020). E-governance and Land Administration in Bangladesh: A Study in Sylhet District. June 2015.

UNESCO and Communication and Information Sector Resources. (2000). Review. United Nations division for public economic and public administration (2001).

[...]